Stephen Ochola, the Soroti district chairman, watched with amusement as a boy from Ochuloi primary school, in Katine, wobbled with an inflated balloon between his two knees to a basin 10 metres away. He drew water into a plastic bottle and filled another one, before trying to walk back to pass the balloon to his team-mate. (Bottle-filling, explained Tausi Kamanyire, a year 2 student at Soroti secondary school, is meant to inculcate a spirit of fair play in pupils). The balloon fell midway, but amused students and teachers gathered at the Katine primary school football ground applauded the effort.

The activity was part of a sports festival held in the sub-county last week, organised by students from Soroti secondary, three other secondary schools in the district and All Saints high school in Sheffield, England to celebrate the launch of the British Council's Connecting Classrooms school partnership programme in the region.

Soroti secondary and All Saints have previously worked together on the council's Dreams and Teams partnership programme, which sought to train young leaders through sport.

Dreams and Teams has now ended, but the relationship between the schools is set to continue under the Connecting Classrooms, which will also involve Katine primary school and another local school, St Francis school for the blind.

Forging relationships

Earlier this month, Katine primary school teacher Simon Emou travelled to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia with his Soroti district education officer, Michael Etoyu-Oumo, a teacher from Soroti secondary school, Stephen Omoko, and the headteacher at All Saints, Bob Sawyer, for a contact seminar to discuss what would be involved in the partnership. The event was attended by participants from across Africa and the UK.

During the seminar, British Council speakers engaged participants in brain-storming sessions focusing on how to create good partnerships. The seminar also gave some schools the chance to forge new relationships. Some attendees had arrived in Addis looking for schools to partner. Ghanian teacher Abdul-Wahab Kassim, for example, arrived in Addis not knowing who he would be working with under the programme. By the end of day three he had teamed up with a school in Lewisham, London.

The aim of Connecting Classrooms is to address negative stereotypes both in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK and picks up where Dreams and Teams left off.

The programme is also eager to avoid having donor-recipient partnerships. Given how materially wanting many schools in Africa are, schools in the UK may be tempted to do more to help their African partners. Jane Henry, the British Council programme manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, says this should be avoided. Each school, whether in Katine, Tamale or London, will have something of equal value to bring to the partnership – it might be just how African schools manage with so little. Still, towards the end of the seminar a teacher whose school in Harare had a computer block was thinking of proposing a fundraising drive to support poorer schools within the partnership.

Soroti and Sheffield's priorities for the three year-relationship will centre on sharing teaching methodologies, environmental promotion and developing leadership skills among learners.

Sawyer and Oumo steered the partnership discussions. "My role, really, will be to provide support for the partnership to thrive," Oumo said.

Sawyer explained that students and teachers at All Saints and Soroti secondary will be able to watch a class being conducted at the other school via a video link up, which will allow them to reflect on the methodologies used and any lessons that can be learned. This will be dependent on Soroti getting a broadband connection, but Sawyer said if the connection is not installed in time, the schools can at least exchange recordings of the lessons.

Katine primary is being directly paired with St John Fisher school, a representative of which was not able to make it to Addis. The two schools are due to begin discussions about working together shortly.

A partnership agreement between all the schools is expected to be signed by the end of September. A district board will be established in Soroti to steer the partnership. Emou will sit on the board to ensure he is party to any decision making.

Festival fun

All Saints' James Dunning prepares a Katine pupil for a game. Photograph: Richard M Kavuma guardian.co.uk

While the teachers and officials were drawing up partnership plans in Ethiopia last week, young people were preparing to mark the event with a celebratory festival in Katine.

The unique thing about the festival, explained All Saints teacher David Faulkner, is that it had been organised entirely by the students and with barely four hours to do so.

In 2006, Faulkner travelled to Uganda as part of the Dreams and Teams programme to team up with local teachers to train Soroti secondary's young leaders. Over the years, these students have trained other youngsters in neighbouring schools, and festivals like this one are an opportunity for the young people to try out their skills.

"For these festivals, we teachers have to stand aside and allow the young leaders to exercise their leadership and organisational skills," said Stephen Omoko.

Festival organisers, Derrick Opio, a pupil from Soroti secondary, and James Dunning, from All Saints, who were both involved in the Dreams and Teams programme, invited about 100 pupils from primary schools in Katine to take part in at least 10 activities. The young leaders had barely an hour to set the stage and teach the pupils how to play the various games.

"One of the aspects of young leaders' training is time management, so all the pupils must participate in all the activities in three hours," said Omoko.

The festival included a welcome song performed by students from both Soroti and Sheffield. The entertainers included 20-year-old Soroti students Julius Odongo and Samuel Odowa; despite having physical disabilities, they danced and sang, attracting applause – and money – from the audience. Later the two students mimed to the song Disability is not inability, a popular hit by a local musician.

In closing remarks, the district chairman promised his "total political support" for the Connecting Classrooms programme.